GreenPiece

Scarred and Spotted Vegetables

August, 29, 2002

Q: This is the first year that I have grown tomatoes, and although they are large in size, they look awful. They have these deep cracks, which don't split the skin, but look like scars racing across the vegetable. Also, there are a few tomatoes that are highly deformed and sort of cluster-like. What caused this, and is there anything I can do to get rid of it?

All Red in Plymouth

A: Dear Red: The problem that you are having is fairly common. It is called catfacing. Catfacing can cause scars, deformities, and cavities in tomatoes. There are several reported causes: cool nights during fruit set, cloudy days during fruit set causing the flower to stick to the fruit as it grows, and inconsistent moisture causing rapid or slow growth. So, if we're not sure what causes it what can we tell you to do about it? Well one thing that has worked is to make sure that the tomato has consistent growth: water regularly when not raining. This tends to keep catface down.

Unfortunately once the tomatoes have it, they are scarred for life. But, the good thing is that you can just cut that part of and enjoy the rest of the fruit.

On that note, herbicide damage mimics catfacing symptoms. If you spray broad-leaf herbicides near your tomatoes, spray drift can occur and your vegetables end up with deformities. In the future, if you need to spray make sure to only spray where you need the herbicide, and spray on a very still day. This will keep pesticides where they belong.

Q: I have peppers growing in my garden, they are of good size, but not ripe yet. The other day I noticed that some have large light brown areas, about the size of a nickel, on them. They don't look like a disease, and when I break them open the rest of the pepper looks fine. The only work I have done recently in the garden was to remove some tall weeds that were shading them. Could it be related to the weeds?

Not Stuffed Yet, in Sherburne

A: Dear Stuffed: Your dilemma sounds like sunscald. Sunscald can happen in just about every vegetable. It is caused when part or all of the vegetable is exposed to hot sun, when it had not been exposed before. It is usually yellowish or whitish on green fruit, turning to a papery look and feel, and faces the sun. You mentioned that you removed tall weeds that were shading the peppers. This sudden removal of the weeds allowed the sun to beam down on the pepper, "cooking" part of it. Other factors that can cause this are: removal of exterior peppers during harvest, physical damage to the plant, leaf blight (which causes leaves to wilt), or movement of the leaves. Some of these factors are hard to control, but here are a few tips to avoid it.

Keep you weeds under control. I know that you can't be on top of every single weed, you should see some of the weeds I had in my garden. But try to keep them from casting shadows on your vegetables. If they do get to that size, thin them out gradually before cutting them down, or consider leaving them up (and pulling off the seed heads). This way you won't shock the plants you want to keep.

Avoid picking at the hottest time of the day, and try to disturb the least number of leaves as possible. Keeping the plant in tact, and picking then the sun is not hot will allow the newly exposed vegetables to warm up to the sun as it gets hotter.

Also, keeping your plants from getting leaf-crippling diseases will keep sunscald down. Practice good sanitation by removing dying leaves, and destroying any heavily infested plants before the disease gets out of control.

If you feel like sunscald is becoming a major problem, and you have a large vegetable crop, consider using artificial shade during extremely hot and plant disturbing days. A little scald is often hard to avoid, but if the affected area is small, the damage can be removed and the rest of the vegetable eaten.

If you have any questions you would like to be answered by GreenPiece, please contact Rebecca Hargrave at 99 N. Broad St., Norwich, NY 13815, or call 607-334-5841.